Featuring Reviews of Triangle Area Restaurants, and Food and Drink Recommendations!

SpanishVines.com 2008 Tempranillo

My local Kroger had a few wines out for tasting the other day and this one caught my attention. I brought home a bottle and I thought I’d try out my first wine review. I’m still a wine nub yet, but I’ll try to be honest.

I chilled the wine in the fridge for a day, then let it air in the glass 30 minutes at room temperature before drinking. The color is extremely dark, even for a red wine. If this wine were a variety of coffee, it’d be an espresso. It was rich, solid, and dark. At first you taste something a bit sour and tingly like a light sparkling wine, but then you get hit by some really rich, deep flavors of black cherry, chocolate and coffee. At first I thought it was just like a pinot noir but the after-flavors really hit you a lot harder. Honestly I don’t know if I liked it. I had a hard time trying to think of what it could possibly be matched with. Certainly not cheese or fruit, not dessert, and far to deep to match most meals. I suppose the kind of person who likes coffee and cigarettes for breakfast would like the SpanishVines.com Tempranillo for dinner.

I’d like to try some other Tempranillos if I can find them. The idea that the bottle of wine has a “.com” at the end of the name puts me off a little.